My dream is for the next POTUS , a Dem female , to hold a press conference on the WH lawn and have a bonfire of all the Executive Orders signed by Trump followed by a bonfire at the steps of the RNC offices of this bill/tax cut for the 1%.
If this happens the USA will be come great again.
2
This tax bill started out with a few good ideas, then went absolutely crazy, loading it up with half-(un!)baked ideas and bad math. It now makes absolutely no sense in either a fiscal or philosophical way.
Guess the Dems will have to take the keys away again in a few years to fix an enormous mess - again!
Please Proceed, GOP. Can't wait until 2018. BIGLY.
Republicans are nearing the finish line for their party. Their draconian, secret tax bill, which only rewards the wealthy (corporate and private), and which has not sen the light of day for the vast majority of Americans, will seal their doom for decades.
America, having been taken for a ride by Trump and the Republicans, will soon awaken to what they have pulled off; the reaction will be devastating for decades both to the people and to the erstwhile Republican party. They knew what they were getting into - no passing the buck, fake truths or distractions will help them. They have earned their fate at our expense. Party on while you can - your celebration will be very short-lived.
The fleecing of the 99% will begin soon.
From starve the beast to emaciate the plebeians
Are you guys sure McCain can make such a big decision?Did he really read all those pages of the tax bill?
One day they will face God. Oh that I might have a front row seat!
1
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
--Mathew 19-21,22
1
Who in their right minds would take less than four months to rework the tax code of a complex, modern, transcontinental nation of 350 + million?
The tax give away to the rich and corporate entities is"
"Taxation without Representation"
Needs to be stopped.
Slamming it through regardless would probably be the seal on the coffin for the GOP. If they don't want to wait for the newly ELECTED representative from Alabama to take office and want to go ahead then fine... dig the grave deeper.
So much winning. You Republicans getting tired of winning yet?
This tax give away to the rich and corporate entities is
"Taxation without Representation"
It needs to be stopped.
Okay, while I did not vote for Trump, I don't understand all the end-of-the-world rhetoric regarding this tax plan. Seriously, I have looked at it backwards and forwards, and as far as I can tell, my wife and I-- both middle of the road middle class-- will get a nice tax break. While we do run a pass-through business (income around $100k total for the two of us), even without the pass-through deduction that they are talking about, we'll get a couple thousand back. I welcome the pass-through deduction-- we've risked a lot and worked like slaves to make this business work. And we employ 15 tax-paying people.
I understand that the higher the income, the higher the tax break under this plan, but most of the taxes get paid by the wealthy anyway, and the tax brackets are still progressive. I do worry about the debt, but I'd rather see cuts in some of the wasteful government spending-- first on the list for me would be defense. I thinks it's a crime for our government to spend so recklessly and corruptly by simply forcibly taking from hard-earned tax dollars, whether from wealthy individuals or not. Of course there are necessary roles for the government, but when there is no accountability or incentive to be efficient with operations/spending, is anyone surprised at the incompetence and corruption as compared to, say, a small business that MUST run like a well-oiled machine if it is to succeed?
1
No cuts in defense - cuts will be to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- mandated by prior legislation & automatic because of the incredible fiscal recklessness of this completely unnecessary tax scam. Corporations doing incredibly well -- look at the stock market. They are sitting on loads of cash & are the last entities needing a tax cut. Tax cuts at this unemployment and to the rich just bubbles and inflation.
Goody for you that you are getting a tax cut. Our income is considerably less than what yours, and our taxes are going up by several thousand dollars to put money in Trump's pockets. Many taxpayers are in the same boat. It will also damage my community & our school district & obliterate the original deal that state and local taxes would not be taxed again at the federal level made when the federal income tax was imposed in 1913. This will be the FIRST time in more than a century that these scoundrels come after hard working taxpayers to impose a tax upon a tax. Never been done before.
And I am sorry, but the pass-through scam is an attack on all wage earners to give people whose business is set up this way a completely undeserved tax break.
Wage earners also work like slaves and take risks.
And you already have been sheltered from your risks by your corporate structure -- that is what that was set up for, not to give you an undeserved tax break vis a vis others earning the same income.
As for corruption -- this tax bill practically begs for it.
1
It's not that the tax breaks are going to the top, all though that is important, it's that the deficit is not being addressed. The $30 trillion+ debt we are going to accumulate over the next 10 years is going to crush the middle and lower classes, when they start to dramatically cut Medicare, Medicaid and SS in the name of economic austerity.
3
Yeah, go ahead in the dark of night (before Senator Jones steps into the hollowed halls of the Senate) and pass this sham of a tax scam/transfer of wealth to the 1% add $1.5 trillion dollars to the national deficit. Saddle future generations with the bill, unaffordable debt, strip the middle class of its legitimate and time-tested tax and home mortgage deductions and gut Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, heck teachers won't even be able to deduct school supply purchases... (Never mind slipping an Obamacare repeal into the mix...I look at those smug smiling grins on McConnell's, Ryan's, Cornyn's, etc. faces as they promote this huge transfer of wealth to the 1% and saddle the rest of us with the bill. There must be lobbyists on K Street--who probably hand-crafted some of the scribbles on the margins--who are dancing on their office roof!
2
So this one will squeak through by a hair with help from the despicables, McConnell and Ryan. Trump will sign it and that'll be the high water mark of his presidency. After the 2018 election, the Democratically controlled House and Senate will overturn. Ryan and McConnell will be remembered in history, eternally connected to Trump, the worst president of all time, a tyrant whose demise a vast majority will cheer.
14
If there is any justice left in U.S after Trump is impeached, resigns, or is "fired!," America will hold investigations into collaboration and treason under this wanna-be dictatorial regime, including Ryan, not unlike France in 1945 after Petain and Vichy.
1
Another blind vote on hundreds of pages of tax revisions. When the dust finally settles, Democrats need to being their 2018 campaigns by tying every piece of negative tax consequence to its respective Republican "owner" and the pain associated with it.
In my state, Republican representatives who represent three of the poorest California districts, voted for the tax bill (McCarthy, Nunes, Valadao whose constituents overwhelmingly rely on Medicaid/Medi-Cal and the CHIP program), while Russia's favorite Californian, Dana Rohrabacher who represents a wealthier district, voted no.
With every House seat up for grabs, the Republican's vote on the tax bill has created the perfect Democrat campaign platform. Democrats will only "mess it up" it they cannot field a list of nationwide candidates: The House and Senate is theirs for the taking.
2
If a good Democratic candidate could win in Alabama, perhaps there's still hope reasonable Republicans will look more critically and walk back their support for a tax bill that does not help the poor and middle class. If Paul Ryan is to be taken at his word, the deficit it will make worse will be "dealt with" by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
2
Colins should resign after this drek passes and save herself the humiliation waiting for her back at home.
4
Please, will any Republican left with any morals, and hopefully there are at least a few, vote against this horrible, cruel, immoral bill? McConnell is running the Senate like a gangster. He will be remembered as a thug and a criminal.
5
Can we please secede already?
Let the red states have their Gilead, and the productive blue states can have a successful, open society along a European model.
4
Easy swap, Alabama for Alberta. Canada gets warm Gulf beaches, and we get the tar sands. Make the deal, Donald. Do it now!
Good. Jam it through before Democrats get the new Alabama seat. Ha ha.
This shameless money grab for the Republican donor base will hang around the Republican 2018 candidates necks like garlic. The vampire squids of Wall St. are again abusing the intelligence of the American people.
2
Such hypocritical cowards. They're against deficits when the Democrats are making policy, but all for it when they are making policy and making it in the dead of night so no one finds out the details until it's too late. Then again the senate voted for the Patriot Act without reading it. Some leadership we have.
1
They are sick sick sick . Where is Susan Collins in opposing this? And John Mc Cain and all other patriots. I believe our country is rising up and these criminals will be thrown out of office . Trump will take them all down .
1
The GOP: The Grinch that stole Christmas. Forever.
4
This GOP regime has become America's Politburo. Serving the oligarchy! The GOp junta moaned and groaned how Obamacare was rammed down America's throat, even after months of hearing. This hypocritical commissars of Congress have spent less time considering this tax scam bill than I spend considering which combo meal I want st my local fast food drive-thru window.
3
With full secrecy from the very beginning, the Repugnants of the Senate and House have moved their ill-conceived all-tax-breaks-for-the-rich tax "reform" bill without requesting any input or debate from the Democrats. The McConnell-Ryan PR machine has told their Fox Faithful that the Democrats refused to endorse the GOP plan and thus, the blamed the Dems for such a close vote. Lies upon lies!
And now, as the GOP plans to complete its Senate-House version of the tax bill, one can only hope the four "moderates" remaining in the Party of Lincoln will come to their senses and realize that all of the promises and bribes made by McConnell, Ryan and Trump will never come to pass.
It is time for Senators Collins, McCain, Flake and Corker to return to the Senate floor with newly-grown and stiffened spines to reject this grotesque tax giveaway to the most wealthy and power individuals, donors, and corporations in the country.
This bill has nothing to do with "growing" the economy. It has everything to do with creating a deficite so large that the Republicans will have to start cutting government overhead and the first programs in their sights are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
This group of so-called Christians genuflects to Ayn Rand and her self-absorbed hate speech. Any GOP reference to the love of Jesus no longer includes his teachings of empathy and compassion for the poor, the sick, and the elderly. The fish, Trump, McConnell and Ryan, rots from the head.
9
I'd like to know what McConnell and pals did to get the holdouts to fold. Bribes? Intimidation? Death threats?
Once again, cowardly John McCaine showed his true colors. If he could have gotten revenge on Trump by being the deciding vote to kill the tax bill, he would have played the role of the maverick. But knowing his vote would have been purely symbolic, he folded like a cheap (fill in the blank).
4
What did they do to get the holdouts? They lied.
4
If this bill becomes law, in 2 years this country will be unrecognizable. It will be one big slum with a few enclaves for the wealthy.
Every republican who votes for this should be met with protests at their homes. Physical violence would actually be quite appropriate against these republicans and their families, since their votes are literally going to murder millions.
It's time for the republicans to be held accountable for their corruption, their greed, and their pure evil.
7
Whoa! Physical violence is never justified. Besides, shaming works much better.
Organize, strike, resist. But don't engage in violence — it will just engender more violence.
2
Although we all know that Roy Moore was a sleaze of the highest order, I like to think that he lost the election for reasons additional to his sexual predations.
It is my hope, that the good people of Alabama besides being disgusted with his perversions, also looked at the GOP plan for the future with this tax cut. If this perhaps, and hopefully was one of the causes for one of the reddest states in the union, to vote against the evil empire, maybe the next series of elections in 2018 will give us a chance to set things straight again.
6
I have high hopes that this chicanery will flip the House to the Democrats in 2018. The Senate, most unfortunately, will be a far heavier lift.
1
Thanks, Susan Collins!
2
Jones won because he had the luxury of running against a probable pederast who romanticized slavery. The fact that Jones won by such a slim margin is testament to the unpopularity of Democratic policies.
Take a slightly less toxic candidate like Trump, and put them against “the most qualified candidate, ever” in Clinton, and the Democrat loses.
If the Democrats are counting on big comebacks in 18 and 20, I’d say keep dreaming. You can’t smear every GOP politician you run against as a total cretin. At some point you have to run on the issues. And when the middle class starts to actually see more money in the bank as a result of tax reform - which they already are if they’re watching their 401Ks grow at an astronomic rate - chances are that they’re going to like what they see.
And then they’re going to reflect on all of that hyperventilating from the left over a “giveaway to corporations and the rich” and this will hurt the Democrats even more.
In this regard, small wins against cretins, and wins in states that are already blue like VA and NJ, might be more counterproductive than helpful; they create a false sense of security. Like all of those polls and favorable media coverage did during the run up to 16. For a party that’s let its confirmation biases and media bubble let it down so dramatically in the recent past, one would think they’ve learned this lesson by now.
1
You are way out of context. This win was in Alabama, probably the most reactionary state in the Union. Democrats will have a much easier time in more moderate states.
5
Why does the GOP hate taxpaying Americans so much?
This is a naked looting of the country. The GOP has no soul, and no shame.
Our Rep., Peter Roskam (IL-06), is a powerful member of Ways and Means, refuses to give town halls or answer constituent questions about the plan. I've emailed him dozens of times and called his office multiple times and have still not received a response. Representative Democracy? Ha!
The GOP is not interested in governing in the interest of the people.
A vote for the GOP is a vote for being robbed while the robbers are pointing at statues of Jesus and Confederate soldiers.
All Republicans who make less than $100k/yr deserve what they get.
Vote GOP out.
9
Soon, the whole country will resemble the recent economic "miracle" of Kansas....
7
Gotta wonder what Susan Collins was given behind the scenes to get her so completely on board with this plan.
4
This is criminal behavior.
I dearly hope that America can return to rule of law and punish these people for taking advantage of the country, and working so tirelessly against the the American people.
Very few people believe that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have anything but evil intentions.
3
Every GOP congressman and senator who votes to pass this travesty should be shamed non-stop at their next election.
“(Name here) gave $1.5 trillion to wealthy cronies and will take Social Security and Medicare away from your children and grandchildren to pay for it!”
I would suggest starting with Paul Ryan. He has been cooking this con ever since he came to Congress.
7
Rest of the country to the GOP: Bring.It.On.
1
Taxation without representation.
7
In less than one hundred years, China is taking over America, so have fun while it lasts. Also, unless your children and grandchildren move elsewhere, vasectomies and birth control are something you should educate them about, because isn’t sent going to be pretty when it happens.
3
They seem to think they are invincible but it is starting to seem, um, maybe not. They may get this temporarily but it should be apparent that we have longer memories than they think and will annihilate them first chance we get. Assuming Dems can keep their haunches up! Certainly, they should all consider themselves on the chopping block.
1
An excerpt:
"It is when the robbers intrench themselves in Parliaments, Reichstags and Congresses, and the robbery takes the form of "Law," that spoliation becomes destructive. Bank laws and money-contraction laws beat down more victims than armies. Protective Tariff "laws," infinitely more ruinous than all the Lafittes and Captain Kidds, drive the American flag from the seas, while on land they make a thousand Rockefellers, Carnegies, Morgans, Guggenheims, McCormicks and Armours, at the same time that they are casting millions of the despoiled out of house and home."
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56041
Nothing has changed since. We are still great.
1
My two year old daughter is having her future robbed before she is even old enough to believe in Christmas. I guess the GOP is going to put coal in everyone's stockings this year who will pay for this handout the rest of their life.
3
Nows the time for the senators [esp. the republicans] who have any decency and any doubts about this bill to slow down this rush to approval. No need to have the current Alabama sit-in senator vote on it
2
it is clear that the only way Senate Republicans can get anything - literally anything - done is by moving the goal posts back and forth. First there was blocking hearings and a vote on Merrick Garland because of the non-existent "Biden Rule," then eliminating the filibuster on SCOTUS nominations so Gorsuch could be confirmed, and now not pausing the vote on the tax bill to reflect the recent election of Doug Jones.
Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are despicable. Period. End of Story. Democrats should boycott any and all Senate votes to deny a quorum until Jones is seated.
2
Unfortunately a quorum in the Senate is a majority, i.e. 51 Senators and the Republicans have that.
I can't believe this is happening. Seriously, I really can't. Are we as a nation really this helpless?
6
The so-called integrity of the so-called moderate republicans (McCain, Collins, etc) has been revealed for the joke that it always was. The election of a Democrat in Alabama gives any republican who has concerns about this bill a bit more cover to kill it. Instead they will rush it thru in secrecy and despite is wide unpopularity and the damage it will do to the economy. Shame on the republican party and shame on these senators for giving up their values so quickly.
8
If absolutely NO democratic senators show up for the vote, it would create a lack of a quorum if ONE republican senator was indisposed. This might work.
5
Until one hears that TRump signs this into law...I will continually be optimistic that we have at least a week that this bill will fail in it's final form because there is just enough senators who cannot and will not agree with it's final concessions.
3
Doug Jones was elected to fill a vacancy. Voters did not have an election to fill the vacancy in a future Congress or to support the political maneuverings of the Senate majority leader. They wanted full representation in Congress now.
The Senate should apply the same ethical standard it applied after Scott Brown won the special election for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 2010.
The people of Alabama deserve to let Doug Jones represent them on the tax bill and any other legislation that might come up. That's why they had a special election.
6
Don't we follow the McConnell-Grassley example? Let's not do anything important following an election. Let's wait for the newly elected person to come in.
Oh, wait, they did not wait for the election, they started their delay tactics for Obama's full last year in office.
8
If Democrats retake either house of congress in 2018, and the other house in 2020, then this entire tax gift to the 1% can be nullified in quick order.
Likewise, Gorsuch can and should be removed from the supreme court by congress since his appointment was in violation of the Constitutional directive.
Republicans are living on borrowed time and know it, they are just trying to grab and run with the cash as fast as they can, while they can...
10
I'm a liberal, and I'm naturally skeptical when Republican taxcutters claim that the loss of the medical, state/local tax, and mortgage interest deductions won't hurt the lower end of the economic spectrum.
I'm also astonished that McCain, Collins, and Flake appear to have abandoned all their earlier objections. My hunch is that this hi-speed tax reform has done exactly what the Republicans accused the Democrats of doing with ACA: creating a legislative disaster the scope of which no one has assessed, and which (they hope) will take years before anyone understands.
2
Except, of course, the Democrats took about 1.5 years to create the ACA, had about 40 PUBLIC hearings and added Republican ideas. The fact that no Republicans ultimately voted for it had more to do with tribalism than any "ramming" of the ACA through Congress.
1
It is hard for me to imagine that this tax bill is anything more than a bullet in the future of the GOP. The recent agreement to lower the tax bracket of the richest, the plan to "reform"- meaning cut- medicare, social security and medicaid. How does the GOP think that this will end - except in enormous defeat. I don't get it.
3
What about the individual mandate? I've read several articles on the latest state of the bill, but none mention that.
So...Schumer asked the GOP leadership to delay the vote until Doug Jones is sworn in because that's what Democrats did re the ACA when Scott Brown was elected in a special election.
Yet another example of Democrats showing up with half a pound of non-GMO kale to a gunfight, while those across the aisle come with fully loaded AR-15s.
3
Mitch holding rolled up paper, like a scroll held by Augustus Caesar. I will remember him, like I remember Boss Tweed.
1
The big question is whether there will be any profiles in courage among the republican senators. It would only take 3 senators to insist upon hearings and a negotiated bill that would be fair to all Americans. Surely some of the senators who are retiring or won't run again because of age or health or whimsy can afford to confront the party. And the Roy Moore results should help reassure some of those other senators that the trump faction doesn't control election results. Do the right thing and you can get re-elected. Don't and risk defeat.
1
If Susan Collins votes for this monstrosity of a bill, the people of Maine should make this term her last and elect courageous leadership.
If Jeff Flake is as sincere as he claims in his book, he will vote Nay. If not, he will show himself as a true charlatan, no better than those he criticizes in his book.
If John McCain gives the thumbs up, he will have to look himself in the mirror everyday knowing that the greatest sacrifice he made for the hard working men and women of our Nation was in vain.
Collectively, this is their singular career defining moment to show true Profiles in Courage.
4
I forget. Remind me. Which mean-spirited arm of the Republican Party stands behind this bill: the Breitbartians? the conservatives? the moderates? or is the misery of the poor and down-trodden the hate that binds the GOP together?
2
The Trumpublicans. You know, the new party.
Thieves!
5
"Republicans’ Tax Bill Nearing the Finish Line"
Translation: "The GOP's and Trump's entirely politically-driven gift to corporations, and outright assault on middle class and poor Americans, is nearly in place. Great shame for all involved."
35
Evidently you haven't read the bill. For the most part, it is tax cut for all and will improve the economy.
Really? Can you show us any analysis outside of that travesty of that single page document given to us by Minuchin that doesn't even provide anything related to details/methodology, for which we are basically asked to, "trust me, the numbers (absent) add up."
A tax plan conceived and passed by a party that represents a minority of the country.
If you look at the Senate, Republicans represent far, far less than half of the population.
Yes I know: The Senate was, obviously, designed to provide the minority a voice. But this is really out of hand now. We have Senators representing a relatively small fraction of our population writing legislation that actively punishes the productive majority and results in the massive transfer of wealth from blue to red.
26
How is it blue to red? Blue wealthy individuals will also benefit from this. Yes, the middle and upper middle class everywhere will suffer in the end as a result of this, corporations will benefit, and some people in blue states will be punished more but how does it transfer specifically only to red individuals or states?
"would allow individuals to choose whether to deduct up to $10,000 in income, sales or property taxes"
This is the first I have heard about deducting income/sales tax. is this accurate? this basically gives everyone an additional 10k standard deduction no? If i am wrong, can someone help me clarify? also would this mean 20k each for people filing jointly?
3
This would work only for those who still want to itemize to get beyond the standard deduction.
No, you would have to have more than $12K single, $24K filing jointly to have the extra taxes deductible.
Wrong...you either itemize your deductions, or take the standard deduction.
1
This isn't going to end well. I'm scared for us all.
23
It's embarrassing to read this. The "plan" is stuffed. It's not been properly reviewed, nor discussed. It benefits golf course owners, the wealthy and real estate investors among others who shouldn't be rewarded.
Is this the best our nation can do? Simply shameful.
18
Don't forget private jet owners! They are among the RICHly deserving who benefit too.
Trump has been riding on Obama's coat tails economically these past ten months. Now that he is making major changes in the economy he will own all of the bad things that are about to befall America. In two to three years America will experience an economic crisis that will make 2008 and 2009 look like a picnic. Let's hope enough of us can remember this tax bill agreed to today is the cause.
17
Aside from these big-ticket provisions, what is the status of the other mean-spirited items that were part of one bill or the other? Taxing graduate student tuition waivers? No deduction for school teachers who purchase educational items for their classes? Interest on student loans? Catastrophic medical expenses?
9
Brandon, the bill is not intended to pay for itself. It's meant to create a huge deficit, which will "force" the Republicans next year to enact draconian cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), and other programs that benefit the poor and middle class.
That's been their grand goal the whole time. It's why they put up with Trump, the clueless enabler of their greed.
25
Charlie B, you're right on target. Pass a massive tax bill that will substantially add to the deficit and benefit basically the wealthy and corporations. When that deficit grows there will be proposals from the same architects of the tax bill to reduce spending, i.e. social programs. In their eyes, it's win win. For the rest of us, it's kick in the head!
1
Amen to that ... and tragically for America.
1
If Republicans were able to prevent a vote when Obama attempted to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, then why can't the Democrats similarly prevent a vote until Mr. Jones is formally sworn in?
10
Do the math. The GOP still has the majority in the Senate and they are not afraid to be seen as unfair or cut throat unlike the Dems.
We have to push for a more democratic voting system with votes have the same weight across district and state lines. Neither house is democratic or representative of the country and since the electoral college is based on those numbers, it is also far out of balance.
And the Dems have to start playing hardball. They could simply walk out before the vote, denying the Republicans a quorum to pass anything. But they won't. They Democrats, especially the corporate "centralist" Democrats, are a bunch of gutless wonders who get their jollies by sniveling, while the Republicans get their jollies by bullying.
Ah, once Trump and his administration are in their prison jump suits and we have a super majority in both houses of congress AND the Presidency, we can roll up the taxes on the wealthy, get rid of the deficit, cut way back on "defense" have universal healthcare.
My new optimism.
In the the grand scheme of things this tax giveaway is as temporary as a Spring snow.
4
This dreadful tax bill is why I was aghast when Democrats agreed to keep the government open for two weeks. Now it's clearly all but delivered and signed into law. All the Democrats can do is run on "Repeal and Replace." The Congressional Republican Grinchs and their Scrooge-in-Chief have stolen Christmas from me and many other Americans.
7
So in 2010, Harry Reid said, “We’re going to wait until the new senator arrives until we do anything more on health care,” He was willing to wait for Scott Brown, a Republican who won Ted Kennedy's seat in another stunning upset. Today's Republicans are clearly unable and unwilling to be as fair, as democratic, as bi-partisan. And shame on Susan Collins; she is usually more reasonable.
9
The Democrats will be ineffectual until they use the same take-no-prisoners approach the Republicans do.
Can anyone confirm what i think I'm hearing ... that AMT will be repealed for corporations, but not individuals, giving lie to any "rate reductions" for millions of taxpayers in NY and California, among other places?
1
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. Oh, I forgot one thing—I will do my best to ensure that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class e.g. most of the people who voted for me, will lose all hope of living a safe and prosperous life. So help me God.
6
Republicans: START LISTENING to your CONSTITUENTS instead of your DONORS and you might win your next election. There is a Doug Jones in your back yard, just waiting to take your seat, mark my words.
9
Our Rep, Peter Roskam (IL-06), sits on the Ways & Means Committee and REFUSES to speak to his constituents. He gives nothing but canned answers to pre-screened "tele-town halls" and interviews.
He has yet to explain to his constituents what he is proposing and voting for.
He DOES NOT represent the taxpayers in his district and we will vote him out.
1
Whatever the final shape of the tax bill, Republicans will want not only to reward their benefactors, the very rich, but also to weaponize the tax code in order to punish the Democrats’ various constituencies—wealthy suburban liberals and academics, for example. The great irony is the devastation they will also impose on their own, recent constituents, the working-class/non-college whites. In so doing, they are sounding their own death knell.
7
Death camps for the poor, the sick, the elderly, and bonanza for those who already have vastly more than they need. Debt for the future.
Shameless!
9
Correction: *PRIVATIZED* death camps, Susan!
Imagine the profiteering the debtors and the GOP will enable as they bankrupt theri own citizens.
I strongly fear this tax bill is going to hurt millions of citizens.
8
I just looked at recent map that shows the distribution of personal debt in this country. If you over laid it with a map of Red v. Blue districts, they would neatly align. The Red districts are awash in personal debt, and yet they vote in representatives who pass legislation certain to drive them deeper into debt. It's really the most astonishing thing ever; a whole class of people willing to dive head-first into ruin because their party appeals to their bigotry. Well, maybe this tax bill will be their wake-up call.
28
Here's that map - worth a good look.
https://apps.urban.org/features/debt-interactive-map/
Republicans know how to appeal to religious zealotry too.
Make no mistake this tax break for the rich is the beginning of the end for "social" programs - hated by the Republicans. Especially the Tea Party Republicans - they want to end SSI, and Medicare so badly they can taste it. Once they pass this massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans - they will begin telling the American people cuts must be made to SSI, and Medicare to close the deficit gap. They are essentially attacking the working class on two fronts. Members of Republican States - call your Representatives, and Senators. Let them know that NO amount of donor money will save their jobs if this bill is passed. Folks in Kentucky, and Wisconsin should be letting McConnell, and Ryan know that their careers are over if this bill moves forward. Ryan certainly isn't prepared to give up his 223,500.00 salary plus perks. Stick it to the middle class at your own political peril Republicans.
18
Too many Americans have already been brainwashed into thinking that what is good for corporate America is good for them. They may never learn.
How can the US embark on a new radical taxation methodology without the participation of the elected representatives of over half of its population? Does any great nation really wish to stray so far from democracy?
Anyone with any mind at all should know that a 'tax cut law' is one side of a coin, and a 'spending cut law' is the intended follow-up. Guess what the GOP hates more than taxes?
17
To a depressing extent the long term (~20+yr) benefit to the US maybe the passage of this bill - the long term backlash would hopefully be the recognition of GOP ineptitude and dissemblance. However the human cost will be high; the price perhaps far too high.
5
Given what the bill's deficits combined with resulting automatic cuts will do to Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, I expect Republicans to be thoroughly drubbed in 2018. If, that is, their brainwashed base manages to find out about the cuts.
12
Fairness and equality is what we won't get. Bipartisanship has been dead in the GOP, for the last 9 years. Remember that.
One day the rest of us who have been hurt financially and health-wise by the GOP, will return their favor.
Enough is enough!
7
And yet you call them by their branding statement, "Grand Old Party." How bad will they have to get before you quit?
Nothing “liberal” about wanting to CONSERVE higher education, science, and self-reliant families who care for chronically ill or disabled parents, children, or spouses. And to CONSERVE our environment, outstanding public school systems, and Medicare benefits Americans have earned through payroll taxes. And nothing “liberal” about fiscal responsibility. The Republican Party has betrayed the American people.
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I'm becoming more and more optimistic every day that McConnell is on a fast track to losing control of the Senate. When that day comes, I'm counting on the Democrats to be fair and just about the manner in which they take the GOP to task for their outrageous behavior and abuse of the American public.
Democrats let bygones be bygones with Bush, that better not happen post 2018. If the Democrats re-take congress, it will be time for the "GOP-child" to face some real consequences.
12
" For Republicans, the public meeting is largely for show, as the final negotiations happened behind closed doors and the major details have already been agreed upon"
These so-called Representatives by hiding and withholding their private negotiations, details and vested interests from interested parties, the public and expert analysis, represent no one other than their own dishonesty and of willingly and knowingly having been bribed , briefed and bought by wealthy elites.
This sham is not democracy...it is the facilitation of funneling even more wealth to the Rich and further widening the huge gulf of inequality between the majority of Americans and the powerful and wealthy minority that call all the shots.
And nobody is doing a thing about it...WHY?
11
Americans had a chance to do something about it, and they blew it. They elected Donald Trump, and the individual states' populations keep re-electing Trump-like support in the form of people like McConnell.
You ask why? It's simple. Because racism and religious zealotry count more than fairness and common sense in so many peoples' minds, that they will vote for anyone who promises to build walls, quash arabs, blacks, and Mexicans, and tells them the US will go back to a 1950s all-white Ozzie and Harriet nation. Even when the taxes of white middle-class America go up, and their benefits go down, they will blindly support Trump for this same reason.
We are a nation of short-sighted, racist fools. Thats why.
Since when do tax breaks to the very rich EVER end up helping the economy?
Maybe the economy of the Cayman Islands, but not the economy of the US.
Middle class Republicans must answer this question before their grandkids inherit a debt made much bigger because of tax cuts to the rich.
11
A warning to Republicans: Doug Jones’ victory in Alabama shows that the tide is finally turning against Trumpism, social Darwinism, and government bought and paid for by rich sponsors. It may take awhile, but eventually the tide will ebb completely and those who have enabled Trump and his ruthless governing style will be left high and dry.
If I were in Congress, I would be looking around for a lifeboat now. I hope that at least two more Republican senators (in addition to Senator Corker) will grow a conscience and a backbone and vote against the tax bill; or at least consider their own long-term best interests and think about what will happen to them in 2018, after the general public finds out just what they lost when the tax bill became the law of the land.
I’d like to remind the sitting senators particularly: the political future you save may be your own.
9
Featuring photos of Mitch McConnell's face defines insult to injury. Report his misdeeds but please forgo the salt-in-the-wound photo-ops.
3
Corporate tax breaks, why? They already make so much money that they have to hide it overseas in sham businesses.
18
Susan Collins I thought you were a better person than that! Shame on all of them!!
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She isn’t. She voted to bring Betsy DeVos’ name to the floor during the hearings for Education Secretary, making her appointment a fait accompli.
7
It seems clear that the Republicans are intent on passing this abomination of a tax bill and probably will ...
They'll face the consequences when we vote those up for reelection out of office in 2018.
12
Write to your Congress, let's march, let's rally. This tax bill is an atrocity. We need to stop it.
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Where is the protest march?! I would be there. Why are the Democrats tut-tutting and not raising heck? Could it be that their donors stand to benefit too?
6
My only hope is that the pain that will be inflicted on the middle class and the poor by this tax law -- clearly its days as a mere bill are numbered -- will galvanize Democrats and Independents in 2018 and '20. The soon-to-follow campaign to dismember Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements should also help.
24
Heard a presentation on NPR last week about the differences between the 60's protests and today. Then, people got out of their homes and in to the streets. Today people tweet and blog, and it has little to no effect.
If we want change. we gotta do more than tweet or blog. At a minimum call your representatives; if you want to really make a difference rally in D.C. in front of the Capital TODAY with signs exposing this to the entire county so folks everywhere know the truth, even those who have consumed the koolaid.
Wish I could be there with you, but I live in Maine and no way to get there.
Sally Forth with hope and conviction.
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Salt Lake City has seen many "resistance" rallies at the Utah state capitol last year and this year. The fact that so many of Utah's liberals live within walking distance of the place no doubt helps considerably. Some of the rallies have made national news lately.
2
And maybe the marchers need to have ONE THEME and not a hodge podge.
How about Campaign Finance Reform. Fixing that has the potential to improve outcomes on all the other issues.
3
Personally, I love the tax cuts. Everyone I know loves them! Even though I’m rich they won’t make me richer. I don’t worry about what happens to me, because the economy will boom. I also don’t worry about healthcare- it’s great for me, and I’m not on Obamacare. In fact, I’m not worried about America at all. If people are smart like me they’ll do great, and if not, that’s their problem.
Sincerley, the president
7
You lie. Trump has never been sincere about anything in his life.
How many buy-offs were added to this in order to get an all-republican declaration of victory for the Ruling Class?
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Probably as many as there are pages in it, or more if you count the scribblings in the margins.
1
Just in case you're keeping track.
The Executive Branch: In the hands of a National Embarrassment.
The Judicial Branch: In jeopardy by the National Embarrassment.
The Legislative Branch: Destroyed by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.
Not much left.
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There will be dancing in the streets (esp Wall street) when this abomination becomes law. If I were planning on SS and medicare being available in a few years they will be in for a big surprise because the so called supply side economy only exist in econ books and the trumpsters minds, Reagan proved that with a large tax increase that followed their wunderkin supply side adventure but please don't let reality invade your trump ego world.
5
Maybe it was a coincidence, but the Dow graph changed direction abruptly about the time today's reconciliation was announced. Selling on the news, probably.
1
The Trump tax plan is not reform - it is scam that steals from salaried workers and gives their tax dollars to donors, investors and pass through owners.
How does taxing workers at higher rates than the owners of the company they work a moral or ethical or valid plan?
This scam nearly destroyed Kansas and it will destroy the country we know. This scam will cause huge cuts to infrastructure, healthcare, education, medicare and social security. It is an atrocity committed solely by the republican party on 300 million Americans as it steals from our children and their future.
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0.1% Welfare On The National Credit Card
"Free-dumb !"
America's Tyranny of the Minority Party of Greedy and Stupid is governing.....and the results are greedy, stupid and unrepresentative of the will of the people.
Heckuva' job, Trumpers....you really hit it out of the park this time.
Enjoy the coal in your Christmas stockings.
Praise the Lords of Mammon and Snake Oil !
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The Majority is marginalized in this tax bill. Whereas a wealthy Minority is Honored.
If this be representative government words have no meaning.
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One vote per dollar representation, as ordained by the Supreme Court a couple of years ago.
1
Democrats should offer their own tax cut bill: lower the corporate tax top rate to 25% and end ALL deduction loop holes.
They could tout their bill as a big corporate tax cut, AND great simplification of the tax code. They could show the public an index card that would be all that was necessary for corporations to file their taxes.
Then all the tax lawyers could go onto more productive endeavors.
11
If the Republican Tax Bill will "pay for itself," why have they indicated the need to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid?
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This bill should be scrapped and the process restarted.
A "once in a generation" Tax Bill that restructures the entire economy should NEVER be forwarded for a final vote without substantial hearings, the bill written in secret, with most of those who have voted for it not even seriously studying the bill.
The fact that there are comments in the margins, as well as drafting errors valued in the $Billions, is further proof that the flippant drafting process doesn't match the seriousness of the task at hand.
This is also not acceptable under reconciliation, which is supposed to apply to small changes without dramatic financial impact. Instead, The Republican Party is "wishing away" the financial impact and refusing to consider their own "dynamic scoring" once it gives them an answer they wish to ignore.
The Republican Party needs to start the process over. They need to hold hearings and build consensus, listen to the people of this nation. Otherwise, the entire party deserves to be decimated in 2018, if not sooner.
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The fact that a high-tax state like New Jersey is now reconsidering even higher personal income taxes if the federal deduction is repealed proves they are not "laboratories" but cynical uncontrollable spenders who like the fact someone else is picking up part of the tab.
I hope the final bill includes a full repeal of the deduction for state and local income taxes to reign in out-of-control spending!
4
If your schools were decent in Florida, I might concede the point. The blue states invest in education and infrastructure. The red states are takers. Florida is a New York/ NJ south and they are benefiting not only from the extra taxes we send your way, but the earners who retire there.People who made a good living because of good schools, unions, and basically, civilization.
8
They are reconsidering raising their state income taxes because the know that if the federal deduction for those taxes is repealed, it will break the backs of the New Jersey tax payers.
When a tax payer pays $10,000 in tax to their state, it is utterly unfair to tax them on that $10,000 at the federal level. The payer is being taxed twice on the same money if you do that, and that's the reason there has always been a deduction for state income taxes.
If you want to reign in your state's income taxes, you'll have to find another way to do it besides double-slamming the tax payers. States like NJ, NY, and CA have high taxes and they also have better education systems than low-tax states. It's no accident that the majority of top colleges and universities are located in states with high state taxes. Those states are getting something for their money. It's not ALL just squandering, much as you would like to believe it.
A huge give away to the 1% paid for by you and me and sacrificing roads, parks, education, clean water, food safety, and soon Medicare and SS.
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"That version included some apparent drafting errors that have upset business interests..."
Yeah, yeah, a few drafting errors, but shove this mess down America's throat anyway. Why? Because Trump and gang need a so-called victory.
Save our nation, please, from such victories.
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When is the public going to find out what’s in the reconciled bill?
After the fact? The BYT is posting charts with differences, the renaming article to say, “they have a deal.”
So what is it? The fact they continue to hide it, at the end of the year with no time for citizens to prepare for the advent of such an extreme impact on their lives, is obscene.
No—more than obscene. It’s criminal.
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Edit: “the NYT posting charts;” “then renaming article etc.”
5
They are cruising to destroy the midddle class and punish anyone who is not a Congress member, CEO, foreign corporation, billionaire, lobbyists or other major donors! The specific individuals breaks aren't even discussed but the hey are massive and a disgusting symptom of the corruption this congress is mired in. This is the GOP that Republicans have created. It is the GOP they want. Don't be fooled by Flake or Collins or MCCain this is their party!
52
The Republican Party has been taken over by Libertarians. As shown in "Dark Money" and "Democracy in Chains". Took 40 years but not many people noticed what they were up to all that time.
1
Libertarians?
Religious zealotry? Redistribution of wealth to millionaires via utterly unequal tax benefits, absurd nationalist banning of foreigners? None of this is even remotely Libertarian. Libertarians believe in minimum government, self-reliance, privacy, freedom of sexual orientation and religion. The Republican Party is nothing like Libertarian. It is much more aligned with the priniciples of the Nazis, if I must be so blunt - identification of a master race population, demonization of anyone who isn't white, Christian, and "already here", skewing of all democratic rules to favor a special ruling class while all the while claiming to be "for the people".
Forget Roy Moore and Tweety Bird.
This tax bill is an act of desperation that will have long lasting effects, to detriment of our democracy, our productivity and our children.
THIS is what needs to be stopped, cold.
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If Detroit built cars like Congress build tax reform bills, we'd all be dead in car wrecks. (Or we'd drive reliable ones built elsewhere...)
14
To paraphrase Ralph Nader, this Congress is "unsafe at any speed."
Well, that's it. Republicans will have their tax plan, as promised. I would personally like to thank our Supreme Court for making this possible. Our rulers couldn't have done it without you.
43
The whole process is autocratic and kicks Democracy in the face.
I bet the members of Congress have no idea of the provisions of this tax bill and more importantly the consequences on the American middle class , our economy and debt.
There is no attempt to close loop holes for the rich and multi nationals and the idea that this bill will not impact the national debt is wishful thinking. There is full employment a critical scarcity of skilled people so if companies want to expand they will automate or relocate
It is clearly a redistribution of wealth from the middle class and from our future to Republican donors.
The middle class, the Trump voters can look forward in some red states to marginal cut in taxes that will be soon eaten up by higher interest rates and inflation.
Soon Ryan will use the pretext of an increasing debt to slash Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP
Disgusting and destructive that is the Republican plan
37
"The Senate and House conference committee holds a public hearing on the tax bill at 2 p.m." At 2:01 they will rap it up and it's on to the next phase of pretending that this bill is undergoing Regular Order.
22
No doubt GOP has the approval fro the Koch bothers, but how many of the GOP congressmen and women have the approval from their own constituents?
48
The Koch's are their one and only constituent.
After the Republicans pass their Tax Theft bill, and the Trump tax returns finally become public for the world to see how much the Trump Family Dynasty has benefitted from the Tax Theft, how will the Republicans justify robbing the poor to engorge the rich?
Do Republicans not understand that once Mueller's investigation reveals how aggressively they and their president worked to enact a Tax Theft Plan that would further enrich Trump and his family on the backs of the working poor and struggling middle class, that the tax-paying voters they have so smugly shafted will rise up against them even more soundly than Alabamans stood up to their Republican-supported sexual predator Roy Moore?
I guess they won't care by then. They'll all be happy to lie in their poolside chaises at their exotic tropical vacation homes sipping on the nectar that working men and women will continue to provide for them and their families into eternity.
15
The Trump tax returns are never going to be made public any more than his medical records are. I think Trump has made that quite clear. He behaves like a king - "I can do anything I want. I dare you to stop me."
And so far, we can't stop him because our Government operates under our Constitutional rules, and Trump operates under his own bully rules.
They've better build the wall around MarALago because that will be the only place that these sycophants will be welcome.
Fair-minded, just Americans of all political leanings must urgently call or write GOP senators and representatives now to stop this monstrous tax swindle that will only bury this country in debt for generations to come. Call Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, et al.
NO public hearings, NO Democratic input whatsoever. NO tax cut for middle-class and poor. NO significant job creation. Only a tax giveaway for wealthy and big business. This is dictatorship, not democracy. What about desperately needed billions to fund our crumbling infrastructure, education, fight climate change or pay DOWN the national debt? Kill this monstrosity before it kills our future!
33
The Good. Jones Won.
The bad. The race is decided by personal smearing of the candidate rather than by winning on the issues. If the only way the democrats can win is by making the races personal and attacking the messenger instead of the message then I have a real problem with our electoral process.
4
This is one of the biggest SCAM by CON lawmakers to punish middle class and awarding biggest tax cut to the richest in the history of America . These guys are shameless and should punished the middle class and the poor voters. These Republican congress members are cruel and fraud.
19
Adding more than a trillion dollars to the national debt, betting on sustained, high levels of economic growth that may not happen, saddling our children with overwhelming tax burdens, making student loans more expensive to pay back in a continuing effort to dumb down the population, and giving the upper .01% of income earners a more generous break than the lower 50%: this is malice toward most, charity for none, a violation of the public interest. The only question is how difficult will it be for a Congress controlled by Democrats to reverse the draconian elements of the bill after they are the majority in 2019. To those who voted for Donald in 2016 expecting their wages to go up, this is a "Sorry, Charlie" moment. For many of us to stand to save a few thousand dollars at the expense of those who really need it, I stand with Charles Barkley, who last night said, "No thanks" to the myth of trickle-down economics. The extra $100,000 that the .01% will keep will buy another German car, another foreign vacation, another work of art, another vacation home. It won't go to buy American goods.
28
I can’t think of one person I know that is enthralled with taxes, of any kind. It’s a dirty word. You mention the word tax in conversation and all you get is frowns and how someone got audited and stiffed by the IRS or was paying for a bloated military budget and the bridge they cross every day to work is about to fall down. Sure, the Republicans with this tax "increase" to the middle class and "cut" to the rich will be advertised as the greatest tax reform in history benefiting every American household. Rah, rah, rah!
Then reality will set in, and the Democrats will pick up on all the negative aspects of the bill, there are dozens of them. And by the time Nov 2018 comes around millions will see what they did and with some good advertising and candidates running in every conceivable race, local, state, and national, the Democrats should be able to take back the House, and maybe the Senate.
The Democrats in Alabama and Virginia demonstrated to the country that change can be made if you get out the vote. So please vote.
8
This is a budget increase, no tax reform here. .... Trump ran on cutting taxes on the working men and women of this country. Another lie from the biggest con man in American history.
11
Expect a full blown assault of hand wringing and predictions of economic doom from Democrats, liberals and progressives over the next week as they ramp up the rhetoric against any revision to the tax code. The blue states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California will be desperately trying to protect the deductibility of state taxes which helps them to justify the gouging of their own residents with onerous state, local and school taxes. Maybe, just maybe, the entrenched government bureaucracies in these states will finally have to justify their tax and spend policies.
So they should lose the only one or two deductions they have so someone like Trump or Soros can pay less tax than he does now. Yea, right.
2
If Democrats tax and spend (so you say), the GOP spends (um, remember the wee $2 trillion for the disastrous and fraudulent Iraq War & occupation?) and DOESN'T tax.
2
The "blue" states are subsidizing the fiction that the "red" states are somehow able to provide public services and maintain infrastructure on their own. This tax bill will further increase this disparity. If we choose to live in high-tax areas because that is where jobs, education and opportunity are, why would the federal govt punish that? Our urban areas are the economic engine of the national economy.
Democrats are "on the record" being against this tax bill, but relatively quiet about it. Schumer and Gillibrand in particular seem more concerned with destroying Al Franken than confronting the greatest tax theft of our time. How does Corporate America need to be more competitive than it already is? Sadly, it seems Democrats are passively complicit in getting this bill through. The unfortunate truth is that the corruption extends to both sides of the aisle. Good luck to us all
5
This heinous tax plan is the most urgent news item these days, and hardly any attention is being paid to it by the general public. Where is the outraged march against the tax bill to follow up on the women's and science marches everyone was so fired up about early in the year right after the inauguation? I am solidly ensconced in the middle class, and this plan will most likely halve the amount of deductions I can take on my tax return -- all while corporate rates are being slashed, and we'll see today what the Republicans are doing to the estate and alternative minimum taxes. I won't hold my breath. In other words, this giveaway to corporations and the 1% is coming squarely off the backs of the middle class. Thanks Trump.
5
Making the People on Main Street Insignificant Again.
The Trump-GOP unstated but real political platform.
2
At least it's not Roy Moore's agenda: Make America Gilead Already.
If it was meaningful legislation, the people would be behind it, but they are not. It is a down payment to the wealthy for their continued support of the Republican Party and the representatives, who are in their back pocket. If it was meaningful legislation, the Republicans would not have to lie about it, making up stories that are pure fabrications, absent of mathematics or even basic arithmetic. In the process, one can not deny that their intention is to cripple the ACA, hurting people everywhere, and make the Blue States with an income tax pay for the Republican gift to the wealthy. If the intent is to turn all states in to Appalachia, it is a good start. It is pure chutzpah for Trump to suggest to the states that they can help come up with the money for infrastructure, when we could have borrowed money for that purpose collectively, as a country, rather than go in to debt to give corporations and the wealthy a tax holiday. Here's the final math: you get what you pay for, and the US already is in the bargain basement in terms of its taxation compared with other countries in the world that far eclipse the US in quality of life standards. Hmmm. If people only understood that you can't run your own home on less income, so how could you run a country on less revenue, but they don't. It is a contradiction to everything the Republicans have preached for the last decade. They are out of sink with the needs of the country, constantly. This, though, may be the worst.
5
One public meeting. Major legislation with as minimal public input as they can get, and in opposition to the warnings of their advisory committees.
This is how decisions in America get made under Republican leadership. Legislation is rammed through to benefit corporate masters.
People who need good roads, effective services, unpolluted water sources, disaster assistance, Social Security, an uncomplicated health care system can wait in the back of a line that isn't moving forward.
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